1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to data processing techniques and more particularly, to a mechanism for generating and populating one or more repositories of application resources for use in integrated enterprise systems. An embodiment of the present invention is implemented in the Java™ programming language
2. Description of Related Art
Sun Microsystems' Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE) is a set of component technologies (Enterprise JavaBeans™, JavaServer Pages™, and servlets) that simplify the process of developing enterprise applications. The J2EE platform provides a number of system-level services that simplify application programming and allow components to be customized to use resources available in the environment in which they are deployed. In conjunction with the component technologies, the J2EE platform provides APIs that enable components to access a variety of remote services, and mechanisms for communication between clients and servers and between collaborating objects hosted by different servers.
Numerable sources exist describing the J2EE application architecture. A book entitled “Designing Enterprise Applications for the Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition” by Sun Microsystems, which is incorporated herein by reference, discloses how to build J2EE applications and use the J2EE technology. Additional reference materials are also available.
The J2EE platform is intended for experimentation and supports iterative development. However, whenever a developer makes a change to a J2EE application, the developer must tediously redeploy the application to effectuate the changes.